Current production motor vehicles, such as the modern-day automobile, are originally equipped with driver-side and passenger-side door assemblies that are movably mounted to the vehicle's body-in-white to protect the contents of the passenger compartment and to provide access for entering and exiting the vehicle. Many conventional vehicle door assemblies are designed with an armrest that extends from the interior of the door assembly into the passenger compartment. Typically part of a decorative trim arrangement defining the door assembly's interior surface, the armrest is often integrated with a door latch release lever and a pull-handle or pull-cup used to open and close the door assembly. A door handle is also provided along an outer door panel and employed to open and close the door assembly from outside the vehicle. A conventional exterior door handle includes a pull-bar handle portion that is pivotable on a bracket or chassis that is mounted to the outer door panel. Pivotal movement of the handle portion applies tension to a cable that moves a latch mechanism to release the latch and open the door. A locking mechanism can also be provided to prevent the vehicle door assembly from unwantedly opening during or after operation of the vehicle.
Many vehicle door assemblies are designed as multilayer sandwich structures with an outer “A-surface” door panel mounted on the outboard side of a stamped sheet-metal inner support panel, and with an interior trim panel mounted to the inboard side of the support panel to face into the passenger compartment. The door's various electrical and mechanical hardware components, such as the window lift assembly, acoustic speakers, door latch assembly, door lock assembly, electrical harness, etc., are packaged between these interconnected panels. For instance, the window lift assembly and door latch/lock systems utilize high-tension cable and pulley arrangements that are sandwiched between the outer door panel and interior trim panel. To decrease the time and complexity associated with assembling the entire vehicle door, some or all of the foregoing hardware components can be preassembled onto a unit carrier to form a unitary subassembly, more commonly known as a “door hardware module.” In so doing, the unit carrier, together with the already-mounted functional hardware components, can be fitted as a complete, and possibly pretested, hardware module into the door structure.